ASA California Weekly Roundup: June 1, 2015Only two weeks left until the California Citizen Lobby Day in Sacramento!

June 01, 2015 | Don Duncan

You have a chance to shape the future of medical cannabis in California in just two weeks. That’s when hundreds of patients and advocates will be in Sacramento to talk with their lawmakers about more than a dozen bills touching almost every aspect medical cannabis – commercial licensing and regulation, penalties for manufacturing concentrates, environmental standards for cultivation, patients’ rights, and more. What happens (or does not happen) with these bills will affect you in some way.

June 9, 2015 –Volunteer Day for the California Citizen Lobby Day (Sacramento)4:00 – 7:00 PM at the ASA office located at 770 L Street, Suite 950, Sacramento, CA 95814. Help us get materials prepared for the California Citizen Lobby Day and stick around for a live online broadcast at 7:00 PM. Please RSVP to courtney@safeaccessnow.og There is paid parking in the building and nearby. Limited street parking is available.

---June 9, 2015 – Live Broadcast: California Citizen Lobby Day Briefing (Online)7:00 PM online at https://plus.google.com/events/cco9nujnqklp00a9s7u2igvp2ms Join us live to get the latest updates on the biggest and most important medical cannabis lobby day yet – the California Citizen Lobby Day on June 14 and 15 in Sacramento. We will be discussing the lobby day program, how you can participate, and the latest information on more than a dozen bills in the state legislature. Your questions and comments are welcome in this live interactive broadcast. Log on early to install free software if this is your first Google Hangout. You can watch the broadcast live on YouTube without the interactive features at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk8bNCy4eBg

---June 10, 2015 – Senate Health Committee Hearing on AB 258 (Sacramento)1:30 PM in Room 4203 in the State Capitol Building. The committee will hear testimony and vote on AB 258 (Levine), the medical Cannabis Organ Transplant Act. The bill will prevent discrimination against medical cannabis patients in the organ transplant process. ASA is sponsoring AB 258 and strongly supports the bill. Get more information at http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ab_258

---June 14-15, 2015 – California Citizen Lobby Day 2015 (Sacramento)1:00 – 5:00 PM Sunday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Monday at the Library Galleria, 828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. 5:30 PM VIP Reception in the Ballroom at the Citizen Hotel, 926 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. ASA will bring hundreds of medical cannabis patients and advocates to Sacramento for workshops on changing local law, special briefings on state bills, training, and face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and staff. Register now for the biggest and most important medical cannabis citizen lobby day yet. Workshops $25 (including materials), Lobby Day $25 requested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds). Registration is open now at http://CaliforniaCitizenLobbyDay.org/registration

---June 23, 2015 - Webinar: Improving Analysis of Edibles, Topicals, and Related Products using Flash Chromatography (Online)10:00 AM PT at http://patientfocusedcertification.org/webinar/ This webinar will teach you how flash chromatography, equipped with universal detection technology, can address quality control challenges by offering a more efficient way to isolate cannabinoids and other compounds of interest from complex matrices. Find out how flash in conjunction with other analytical techniques can remove matrix interferences, quantify low level cannabinoid in edibles and topicals, and how it can be used to create your own reference standards.

For the first time ever, we now have comprehensive medical marijuana legislation in the U.S. Senate. Sign the Petition below to urge your senators to protect safe access and patients right by signing onto the CARERS Act.

The California Medical Cannabis Organ Transplant Act (AB 258) is on its way to the Senate Health Committee. AB 258 will reduce unnecessary suffering and preventable death. It prohibits anyone in the decision-making process from blocking an organ transplant based on the potential recipient’s legal medical cannabis use, unless a doctor has determined that medical cannabis use is clinically significant to the transplant process. Sign this petition to let committee members and their colleagues in the Senate know that voters support equal access to health care for medical cannabis patients.

Yarrow Kubrin, father of two small children, is facing four and a half years in prison for medical cannabis cultivation. Sign this petition asking Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch and Probation Director Robert Ochs to stop recommending prison sentences for victim-less crimes related to cannabis.

Get all the details, tentative agenda, and registration information, and more on this new webpage for the California Citizen Lobby Day, June 14-15, in Sacramento, CA. This will be ASA’s biggest and most important lobby day yet in California. We will be discussing regulating cultivation, using local initiatives, and more than a dozen bills in the state legislature. ASA will make an appointment for you to see your state Assembly Member and Senator on Monday, June 15, when you sign up.

The “California Weekly Roundup” is a once-a-week email for ASA Members and Friends that focuses on relevant news and important updates, action alerts, meetings and special events. Send items for the California Weekly Roundup to CARoundup@SafeAccessNow.org before 12:00 PM on Friday to be included in Monday's distribution.